Best Actor in a Play
I imagine Treadaway will be appearing in many award list, both of bloggers and more official awarding bodies, but sometimes the hype is just correct. It's all the more impressive given that the condition from which his protagonist suffers is never actually named, yet in his hands it doesn't matter a single jot as the play becomes about a journey through someone else's eyes, a uniquely different take on life and one which is a genuine pleasure to discover and watch. See it when it transfers.
Although my abiding memory of the play is weeping like a buffoon at the end, a close second is the proposal scene(s) in which Spall played and replayed a pre-prepared speech with varying degrees of success as far as the character was concerned, but always superbly affecting to watch and so very easy to connect with.
7-10
Best Actor in a Musical
I've already taken a bit of stick for this as we're in 'play with songs' territory but to my mind, Privates... is closer to a musical than a play, some of the songs are actually narrative-driven and it's my blog so my rules. In any case, this was the first time that I came close to actually seeing why people rate Russell Beale so much with a performance that felt essentially so very true in every single aspect.
An ineffably charming onstage presence, Umbers was perfectly cast as the central figure whose journey from appealing dreamer to jaded sell-out is the heart of the show and told in reverse, it provided the ideal showcase for his considerable acting skill alongside a powerful voice.
7-10
Labels: Billy Carter, David Suchet, Dominic Rowan, Dominic West, fosterIANs, Hugh Ross, Julian Ovenden, Luke Treadaway, Mark Umbers, Rafe Spall, Richard Dempsey, Simon Russell Beale, Will Young